When A Mage Revolts

Everyone was shocked from the news.

Although they still couldn’t bear with the smell but at least they did not turn their back on him.

"What’s in the bucket?" Benjamin couldn’t help but ask.

Frank removed the bucket lid and everyone curiously peered in. Inside, was some whitish yellowish fat gunk and surprising the scent came from there.

"It’s horse essence," revealed Frank. "Griffins are fond of horse meat and they would not be able to resist horse essence that was extracted. We could distract the griffins with this and fly over the mountains with the Flight Spell."

They looked at one another.

"Erm... but has any of us have mastered the Flight Spell?" The young lady thought about it and hesitantly stated, "This is the hardest of all beginner level magic and calls for high affinity with the wind elements."

Frank conversely was happy to answer, "Nope, it’s not as you think it is. The Flight spell is not that hard and I’ve just learned it. As long as you put your mind to it, you can do it as well!"

The rest had an odd expression in their faces.

He learned the Flight Spell... For real?

It wasn’t that they looked down on Frank but rather, they knew his southern accent was too thick for incantations. His journey to become a Mage has not been short and the only magic he mastered was the Water of Life. This alone was enough to indicate his talents on becoming a Mage.

And now that they have just all learnt the way to meditate. It couldn’t be that Frank had mastered the Flight Spell which was a high difficulty level for beginner level magic in less than three days, could it?

They found it hard to believe and started to wonder whether this was a prank.

Frank replaced the lid back onto the bucket and took a deep breath and chanted the Flight Spell after seeing everyone in disbelief.

Although his accent was thick but the chant for the Flight Spell seemed to match up with his accent. The entire chant wasn’t mispronounced.

Accompanied by the spreading of light waves and the accumulation of the Wind Particles; suddenly, Frank’s sleeves flared up and he opened his arms as the tip of his feet left the ground. He was like a kite, slowly floating into the air.

"Oh my..."

The crowd let out a shout. Nobody was bothered by the smell from the horse essence anymore.

Benjamin was pleasantly surprised.

He could tell from Frank’s display of the spell that although his talent wasn’t there, his Spiritual Energy and affinity to the wind element wasn’t bad. It was just that he was bounded by the restriction of his accent that he couldn’t roll his tongue and pronounce the chants properly.

— It was happened that the Flight Spell didn’t require the roll of the tongue.

What dumb luck!

Frank flew in the air for a while and slowly descended while the rest were in awe. Everyone was excited and gathered around Frank to ask how he’d did it.

Frank in turn, gave them a surprising answer.

"I have always wanted to learn the Flight Spell and so when Sir Benjamin taught about the meditation nature, I’m thinking that if I work on my affinity to the wind element, would my affinity to element increase by folds?" His eyes were beaming with excitement.

"So, I went to the Wind Fissure in the south to meditate."

The crowd were once again astonished.

"My, my... the Wind Fissure, are you mad?"

Although Benjamin wasn’t familiar with the topography of this area, he had been around town and staying in an inn. He has heard of the Wind Fissure. After all, it was a popular spot around here.

The Wind Fissure was situated south of the Town of Crewe. It was a rift beyond the mountain range. It was said to be a windy place all year long. Basically it was a level 8 degree typhoon which could literally blow someone away to the ends of the earth. Nobody was silly enough to head there and risk losing their life being blown away.

To head to that area to meditate, that would take guts.

"During that time, I locked myself onto several kilograms of metal chains to prevent myself being blown away. I was lifted half way into the air by the wind yet held back by the chain while meditating." Frank showed deep red markings on his wrists and continued, "The air was filled with nothing but Wind Particles. I could only draw the Wind Particles to polish my Spiritual Energy and Affinity to Elements. Although there is no improvement towards other elements, my affinity to the wind element has increased tremendously!"

... Oh?

Listening to all this, the crowd did not harbour any shocked or inapprehensive expression. On a contrary, they were all silent and lowered their heads as they were deep in thought.

Frank’s words had enlightened them to contemplate.

Benjamin wasn’t that much enlightened as the way he practised was different from the rest and so if he were to dive deep into the sea of thought, the strengthening of his runes would not improve much.

However, there was no denying that he was pleasantly surprised by Frank’s words.

He didn’t think that by teaching them ways to mediate, they were able to improvise their meditation based on their own needs.

Although this may just be scratching the surface of ‘improvement’ — by changing the environment of meditation to change the outcome. As long as one spent some time on it, it was easy to figure out. Benjamin was still impressed with the logical thinking that came with it.

As long as they dared to change, innovate and try.

Come to think of it, this could be the benefit of mages without formal teachings. Nobody taught them about fearing the magical gods or Cain kinda bullcrap. Under Benjamin’s "atheist" influence, the group was fearless against all odds.

One has to have this attitude to be a Mage!

What’s the point of being a Mage if it meant praying and worshipping the gods and blindly following ancient teachings?

The group quickly broke from their thoughts and engaged in another heated discussion.

Frank’s way of meditation had greatly inspired them. Perhaps they did not need to resort to extreme measures like chaining themselves against the typhoon to meditate. They could use a more approachable method, such as soaking in water to learn water spells, meditate near a stove to learn fire spells, or burying oneself in the sand to learn earth spells.

As long as one dared to imagine, there were a lot of ways.

Benjamin didn’t think that they managed to come up with a "dual practice" method.

Let’s say if a person would like to strengthen their affinity to the water element, then another person would be throwing Water Balls at him. The Water Balls were different from the water in real life, as they can quickly disintegrate the Water Particles and absorbed by the person in meditation. Two people would work together, one who would assemble the particles and the other would utilise them. The efficiency of the practice would be a lot faster than simply meditating in the bath.

Benjamin was shocked with their conclusions.

Who would have thought that in a world where it has yet to be industrialised, the concept of work sharing seemed to be distant. However, the people of this era managed to build this concept into the practice of magic.

Mmm... Interesting.

Benjamin was filled with anticipation.

To think he was worried about their future three days ago. They managed to find their own path in just a mere three days.

So... what’s next?

Under their perseverance of continuous trial and error, where would these non-mainstream mages end up?